South African doc examines music

World Brief

Irish production company Little Bird and South African financial services company Coronation Capital have inked to produce a feature documentary on the legendary music of Johannesburg’s Sophiatown in the 1950s.

Many of South Africa’s best-known older black musicians have their roots in Sophiatown, which was bulldozed to make way for a whites-only development.

The documentary, to be produced by Little Bird’s James Mitchell and directed by Pascale Lamche, has been pre-sold to the BBC, Gallic broadcaster France 2 and Denmark’s TV2. Negotiations are under way with German and Scandinavian broadcasters.